After slamming down a quick bowl of oatmeal and blackberries, I sped to Sugar House Coffee to meet the KSL news team at 5:15 am for a live interview about the upcoming Sugar House Art Walk. My job was to stand with my canvas and easel and paint an image of the interior of Sugar House Coffee. Simple, right?
I set up my easel, laid out my brushes and began blocking in a rudimentary drawing of the red side table along the north wall of the coffee shop. Jen, the news reporter, came and told me to move down about 10 feet (I moved).
I wiped my canvas clean and began to sketch in the new view of the side table.
15 minutes later she suggested that I back up 5 feet as she began moving the tables to accommodate my new position.
I wiped my canvas clean and began to sketch in a newer view of the side table.
10 minutes later, Jen moved the other artist (there were two of us) and had him place his paintings on the side table, blocking my view completely. Ah, well. I can certainly flex...
I wiped my canvas clean, turned my gaze to the dessert counter and began a new sketch.
A crew of people entered the coffee shop and stood as a group in front of the dessert counter. Two of them pulled up chairs, opened their laptops and set up camp. I resisted the urge to shout "down in front! This was not going to be easy.
Wiping the sketch of the dessert counter off my canvas, I finally settled on blocking in a view of the east end of the coffee shop! Voila! Success at last!
This was an opportunity to stand as a proxy for all the Sugar House Artists - a token plein air painter. Once I figured that out, I really enjoyed myself.
It really didn't matter what I painted today. What mattered was that I was participating vicariously for all those closet plein air painters - who might feel inspired to paint when they see this blurb on TV.
Besides, there were some entertaining moments. At one point, Jen tripped over the leg of my easel and muttered "Jesus" under her breath - which caused me to giggle on the air...live.
When the barista handed Jen a freshly blended shot of carrot/apple juice from the coffee shop bar, the reporter took a drink, smiled and said something inane like, "Mmmm, this is very healthy." As soon as the camera turned off, Jen pulled a nasty face and did her version of a hairball hack.
If you would like to view the live video clips of our Sugar House Coffee experience, click here.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1105&sid=24735755&title=sugar-house-celebrates-salt-lake-culture-with-art-walk
This truly was an adventure. I have a new respect for the reporters and their crews. Filming on location is a lot of work. They have to move furniture, plug lights in and adjust microphones and headsets. They make it look easy. Would I like to be a reporter for a living? Nope! I would rather be an artist!
The best part of my morning? I got to paint!
